#Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero

[alphacomicsvol2]

Batman & Mr Freeze - Sub-Zero Cover

[albertonavajoart]

#Arkhamtober Day 25 Mr Freeze

[theanimationalley]

[doomed-jester]

They make a big deal about Nora and Barbara both having AB Negative blood, which IS, from what I can gather, the rarest blood type. The problem is, anyone with AB- can receive blood from anyone with ANY rh-negative blood type (O-, A-, B-, AB-). So, and I concede I'm not an expert here but, she should actually be a compatible recipient from like 1/5 people. Maybe it's more specific with organ donation, but if that's the case I feel like there's more to it than blood type.

[thevaudevilledemon]

Cartoon Rap Battles: Sub-Zero vs Mr. Freeze

Aye, still getting putting these out. I dunno, I just thought of some good lines for this and then wrote it. I also put a few obscure references so... I dunno.

Mr. Freeze:

I will leave you colder than your name And my heart of ice You need to plan carefully You can’t pull the same move twice

I got my Freeze Ray But I’m not Dr. Horrible Your complicated backstory Has proved not but ignorable

You weren’t even one Of the original kombatants Your brother was ripping out spines Then became a Noob, what happened?

I’ll send a chill over your body As I do all over Gotham If you want ice cold rhymes You know I’ve got them

This will be a better battle Than when our universes first crossed I’ll give you a colder shoulder Than you gave your gender-swap, Frost

I hope you have extra quarters Because Batman’s not here to force a friendship Anything you throw at me shall only make me stronger So make like your opponents and slip

Sub-Zero:

I do not have the time For this silly childishness I am a Lin-Kuei warrior So I shall quickly Finish This

You depend on that suit to survive If it breaks it leaves you gasping on the floor All these robotic enhancements And you will still get beaten, like Sektor

I am the reason that games Come with a content warning You were introduced when Comics left their readers snoring

You got kicked into chemicals Like I kick people into spikey pits So test your might against me I’ll unleash an unstoppable string of hits

You went from Shere Khan to Conan When Schumacher got hold of the bat hero And this time, I shall leave you Like your original name, just Plain Zero

You’re a comical antagonist Just a pulp abnormality I’ll wash my hands of your blood Leave you as another fatality

Mr. Freeze:

I don’t think I made myself clear You weren’t in Mortal Kombat one Everyone who knows the lore Will know that was actually Bi-Han

I’m disappointed Sub-Zero I expected something sharper than Kendo But you’re verses had less bloodlust Than those ports on Super Nintendo

Your verses would move me to tears If I still had tears to shed I’ll leave you like Sindel leaves a body With a ringing voice inside your head

My name is Victor Fries I’ll be taking home the Victory You destroyed your popularity When you came out with Mythologies

You struggle with your rhymes like kids Trying to get your special moves to work I was portrayed by some of the greats While you’re nobody’s business but John Turk’s

Sub-Zero:

You could never stand up to me I will pull a Sheeva and rip your skin off And if you actually cared about lore You would not mention that Mythologies spin-off

I can kick your ass anywhere From the Netherrealm to the Desert Sands Your wife liked to dance under the snow You just ripped off Edward Scissorhands

You got knocked flat on your ass By a thermos of Chicken soup And you are overshadowed by a Clown And a cat lady in your villain group

Ice puns and sad backstories Do not easily make me weary Stepping up to me Was an instant hara-kiri

[nevinslibrary]

Not a Book Friday

I’ve seen a lot of different Batman media with Mr. Freeze aka Victor Freis in it, and, while this one is definitely aimed at pre-teen and young teen kids, I have to say that it seemed to have some of the most heart and depth than most of the adult versions of Mr. Freeze.

Victor has been living in the Arctic with his adopted Inuit son Koonak and two polar bears. His wife is still cryogenically frozen because she’s still ill, and he’s still looking for a cure. Then, a submarine breaks through the frozen floor of Victor’s cave, destroying the chamber where Nora is being kept alive, and suddenly, she’s rapidly dying again. So, Victor goes to Gotham, looking for a cure. There is one, but the perfect match is currently alive, and so… that means that to save Nora, Victor has to kill someone else.

As I said, it was a really complex sort of story. There’s the regular ‘rescue one of the Bat Fam’ story in there, but, also a commentary on life and death interwoven as well. Such a fun movie.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero

[drzed786]

SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE

[artbyblastweave]

Leaving aside continuities where villains have already "redeemed" themselves, who would you say its the best candidate in gotham at a redeption that actually sticks if you were writting it

Hand's down it's everybody's favorite Militant Wife Guy Mr. Freeze. When it comes to the BTAS version, the one that anybody gave a shit about, he had an extremely sympathetic and above all else singular motivation for getting into crime- he either wants to avenge his wife or cure her. With this in mind, they gave him an off-ramp on purpose at the end of the Sub-Zero film, having Bruce cut the underlying knot by just throwing money at her until she cured, but then they just had to bring him back for The New Batman Adventures, couldn't leave well enough alone, oh no. Anyway in my head he's got a part time gig teaching at Gotham University. He lectures in full costume. He's got the freeze ray pointedly mounted on his desk but it's probably not loaded. Or if he does freeze someone mid-lecture it's a TA he planted in the audience

[fantastic-nonsense]

Hallo!! So you replied to me on twitter the other day with your Batman Comic list thingy (its late and im tired while asking this) and I was wanting to ask if you know any really good Mr. Freeze comics I should look for and read? Love that dude fr

Hi! I'm happy to!

so the tl;dr on Mr. Freeze is that he's basically a totally different character in comics that came out before the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice" in 1992 than in comics that came out after that episode. The DCAU version is really the definitive version of the character, and the popularity of that portrayal changed how he was portrayed in comics afterwards. And honestly...the majority of his good stories have been told within the DCAU and its various connected comics. He's unfortunately an extremely underutilized villain in the comics even after BTAS made him popular. So, that being said, here's a few good Mr. Freeze stories.

DCAU-verse:

Batman: The Animated Series S1 Ep. 14, "Heart of Ice"

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

The Batman Adventures: Sub-Zero

The Batman Adventures: Dangerous Dames & Demons

Batman: Gotham Adventures #1, 5, 40, 43, 45, 51, 53

Many of Freeze's major non-DCAU comic appearances can be found in Batman Arkham: Mr. Freeze, and here's a list of his most prominent (and decently-written) appearances in the comics:

Batman (1940) #121 (Freeze's first appearance)

Detective Comics (1937) #373

Batman: Mr. Freeze (by Paul Dini)

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #190-196, "Cold Snap" and "Snow"

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #201-203, "Cold Case"

Gotham Central #1-2, "In the Line of Duty"

Batman: Gotham Knights #59, "Fire and Ice"

Batman: One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze

He also shows up as the co-villain (along with Penguin) in the Detective Comics "City of Crime" storyline (Detective Comics #800-808, #811-814) and as a supporting villain in the final arc of Cassandra Cain's Batgirl solo, Batgirl (2000) #65-73.

Hope this helps, and have fun reading!

[docgold13]

Batman: The Animated Series - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Grant Walker

The famous entertainment mogul, Grant Walker, made his fortune with a series of family-friendly amusement parks.  All Walker wanted, it seemed, was to make people happy. As he grew older, however, Walker became increasingly megalomaniacal and obsessed over the idea of making the whole world as clean, orderly and idyllic as one of his theme parks.

The robotics expert Karl Rossum had worked for Walker early in his career and Walker utilized Rossum’s designs to build a small army of robots.  These robots built ‘Oceania,’ a secluded community that adhered to Walker’s notions of a utopia.  

As his health began to fail, Walker became more desperate in his commitment to his twisted dream.  He used his robots to free the villainous Mister Freeze from Arkham Asylum.  Walker had obtained Mr. Freeze’s wife’s body still frozen in cryogenic stasis.  He used her as leverage to force Mr. Freeze into doing his bidding.  

Walker demanded that Freeze replicate the accident that had transformed him, believing that become like Freeze would bestow him immortality.  He also had Freeze created a giant version of his freeze gun.  Walker planned to use the massive ice cannon to encase the entire world in frost, leaving Oceania the last bastion of civilization and the foundation of the next era of mankind.  

Mr. Freeze was forced to do Walker’s bidding and he replicated the process that changed him.  Freeze transformed the aged tycoon into a being like himself… ageless, but unable to survive outside of sub-zero temperatures.    Walker was then outfitted with a cyro-suit similar to that worn by Mr. Freeze.  

Batman and Robin had tracked Freeze down to Oceania.  They were captured by Freeze and Walker, yet Batman was able to appeal to Freeze’s better nature.  He convinced Freeze that his cherished wife, Nora, would never love a man whole would allow the whole world to be frozen.  

Freeze turned on Walker.  The ice cannon malfunctioned and caused a chain reaction that sunk Oceania.  Mr. Freeze escaped with his wife’s body whereas Walker became trapped within an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the ocean.  

Actor Daniel O’Herlihy provided the voice for Walt Disney Grant Walker, with the villain appearing in the  fifteenth episode of the second season of Batman: The Animated Series, ‘Deep Freeze.’  

[bestanimatedmovie]

List of accepted movies!

Let me know if you find any mistakes

101 Dalmatians

5 centimetres per second

9 (2009)

A Goofy Movie

A Monster in Paris

A Silent Voice

Adolescence of Utena

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Anastasia

Anomalisa

Asterix the Mansion of the Gods

Astro Boy (2009)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest

Bambi

Barbie & the Diamond Castle

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

Barbie Princess Charm School

Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island

Batman and Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Batman Ninja

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Beauty and the Beast

Bee movie

Belle

Big Hero 6

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children

Brave

Brother Bear

Captain Underpants

Chicken Run

Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Coco

Coraline

Despicable me

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!

Emesis Blue

Encanto

Ernest & Celestine

Fantastic Mr Fox

Fantastic Planet

Felidae

Ferdinand

Finding nemo

Gnomeo and Juliet

Grave of the Fireflies

Green Snake (or White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake)

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Hercules

Home on the Range

Hoodwinked!

How To Train Your Dragon

Howl's moving castle

Ice Age

In this corner of the world

Inside Out

Interstella 5555

Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus

Isle of Dogs

James and the Giant Peach

Jin roh: The wolf brigade

Kiki's Delivery Service

Kirikou and the Sorceress

Klaus

Krabat – The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda 2

Lilo & Stitch

Liz and the Blue Bird

Loving Vincent

Lu Over The Wall

Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro

Madagascar

Mary and Max

Meet the Robinsons

Megamind

Metropolis (2001)

Millennium Actress

Monsters inc

Monsters vs Aliens

Mulan

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks

My neighbor Totoro

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl

Night on the Galactic Railroad

One Stormy Night

Paprika

ParaNorman

Perfect Blue

Persepolis

Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension

Planet Hulk

Pocahontas

Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias

Ponyo

Porco Rosso

Princess Mononoke

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Promare

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

Quest for Camelot

Rango

Ratatouille

Ringing Bell

Rise of the Guardians

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie

Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Shrek

Shrek 2

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Song of the Sea

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Spirited Away

Spookly the square pumpkin

Star Twinkle Pretty Cure the Movie: These Feeling within The Song of Stars

Summer Wars

Suzume

Tales of the Night

Tangled

Tehran Taboo

Tekkonkinkreet

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

The Aristocats

The Book of Life

The Boy and the Beast

The Brave Little Toaster

The Congress

The Emperor's New Groove

The Garden of Words

The Great Mouse Detective

The Incredibles

The Iron Giant

The Jungle Book

The Last Unicorn

The Legend of Hei

The LEGO Batman Movie

The LEGO Movie

The Lego Ninjago Movie

The Lion King

The Lion King 2

The Little Prince

The lorax

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

The Pagemaster (1994)

The Penguins of Madagascar

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Prince of Egypt

The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the Goblin

The Sea Beast

The Secret of Kells

The Secret World of Arrietty

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Sword in the Stone

The Tale of John and Mary

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

The Thief and the Cobbler

The Wind Rises

Tokyo Godfathers

Toy story

Toy Story 2

Treasure Planet

Troll In Central Park

Trolls World Tour

Turning Red

Unicorn Wars

Up

WALL-E

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit

Waltz with Bashir

Watership Down

We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story

Weathering With You

Whisper of the Heart

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Wolf Children

Wolfwalkers

Wreck-it-Ralph

Your Name

Zombillenium

[ewzzy]

A tribute to all the crazy explosions in Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero

[localebra]

Hench Women of Mr Freeze

Glacia Glaze

First appearing in the 1967 Adam West Batman Show episode 93 Ice Spy and later 94 The Duo Defy. Glacia was a world famous ice skator who helped Mr Freeze kidnap Professor Isaacson the ship the S.S. Gotham Queen. While preparing at the Bruce Wayne Ice Rink, she was interupted by Bruce Wayne and Harriet Cooper while talking to Mr Freeze through her radio. She explained it away as a strange music box she got in Switzerland. After Mr. Freeze has trapped tje dynamic dio them in a Sub-Zero Temperature Vaporizing Cabinet Glacia questions him about vaporizing them. He tells her not to get cold feet, activating the vaporizer. Seemingly vaporizing the dynamic dio, Mr. Freeze gives Glacia a chose between her career as an ice skater or him. She chooses him and as they leave we see Batman and Robin survived. After Mr. Freeze and her get the secret frozen ice formula out of Professor Isaacson's they completes the thermodynamic ice ray. Using it to freeze parts of the City, and to pull various icebergs into Gotham Harbor. Mr. Freeze's homing seal named Isolde having lead Batman to his hideout. Ater the fight her and Mr. Freeze were apprehended by Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara.

Ms. B. Haven

1997 Batman & Robin Ms. B. Haven was only seen in Mr. Freeze's hideout in an abandoned ice cream factory. She is attracted to Mr Freeze and makes advances at him, Mr. Freeze turnd her down. Expainling that his heart only thaws for his wife, who he is seeks the cure for her MacGregor's Syndrome.

Ms. B Haven only really exists because of Sugar & Spice in the previous film.

Ice Maidens

Apearing the same year in The New Batman Adventures, hired by Mr. Freeze to destroy their dreams of the citizens of Gotham. First destroyed an ancient dinosaur skeleton along with the scientist's dreams. Fighting the dark knight one of the maidens leg are frozen to the floor after attacking him, the other two escaping. Next Mr Freeze targeted Wayne Manor, breaking in and slowly freeze Alfred. Batgirl arrived knocking the freeze gun out of Mr. Freeze’s hand while Bruce and Tim fought the Ice Maidens. The Ice Maiden knocks out Batgirl and Tim. They took them back to the laboratory and kept the doctors as hostages to find out their boss’s condition. After Mr. Freeze leaves, Batgirl disarms the Ice Maidens and takes them to custody.

It is interesting to see how many women Victor has in his life besides his wife. A solitary character constantly surrounding him self with women he doesn't care for. Maybe he picks them because they look like, sound like or remind them of his wife. The simplest way to introduce Glacia Glaze & Ms. B. Haven is to have them be members of the Ice Maidens. There are rumours that two were base off them, but nothing confirmed. The most interesting idea I can see is these women joining him because of love. All hearing about what he is trying to do and considering it the most romantic and pure mission. The can think he is the last true romantic, have lost there partner or have a parter with MacGregor's Syndrome. They want him to be reunited with Nora, He is stoic and they are anything but. A great contrast waiting to happen.

[twinhood-2dot0]

A Shallow Dive Into: Batman’s Rogues Gallery Part 2

Here, part 2. The first one somehow got 7 likes??? I barely even put any effort into it. This one is also gonna be pretty low effort :P I started writing another post yesterday and I wrote 1360 words and I’m only like only a ⅓ finished??? And I kinda spent the whole day watching an anime start to finish 💀.Anyways, let’s get into some more that I missed.

The Al Ghul’s

Ra’s al Ghul (Raysh-Al-Ghool or, Raas-Al-Ghool. Even DC writers can’t agree, although I’m more accustomed to Raysh, I think that was how it was pronounced in the DCAU and the Arkham games. It’s Arabic for “Head of the demon”) is a man born around 700-450 years ago, who discovered the powers of the Lazarus pit, which has the power to bring people back from the dead and used it to prolong his life. (Yeah, this how pretty much most of the dead Batfam characters came back to life. Jason Todd, Kate Kane (Batwoman), who died for like one issue a few meters away from a Lazarus pit, Riddler, as mentioned before, when he got cancer and took a dip in the pit and figured out Batman’s identity.) Ra’s al Ghul, in his long life, played a part in like a lot of historical moments, and later comes to resent humanity and becomes an environmentalist. I’m not very familiar with the character unfortunately, with all of my experience being the Batman Begins version, the kinda weird role he played in Arkham City, and JLA: Tower of Babel where he takes down the entire Justice League using Batman’s countermeasures for his own allies, and the Injustice series, which I don’t remember much of except that he has like a nature sanctuary with various critically endangered species and he was besties with Animal Man.

Talia al Ghul is the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, on-and-off love interest for Batman, and mother of Batman’s biological son, and also on-and-off ally of Ra’s al Ghul. She also played a part in Jason Todd’s resurrection and consequent training.

Ra’s also has one other daughter, Nyssa, but I honestly didn’t even know she existed until I played Arkham Knight. She has much less appearances than her sister.

Lady Shiva, while not a member of the family, has relations to the League of Shadows, so I thought I’d group them together. Lady Shiva is among the best martial artists in the DCU, able to best even Batman. She’s also the mother of Cassandra Cain, the other best fighter, although more so because of her procognitive abilities. 

Man-Bat

Wow, the realisticness makes him so much scarier.

Dr. Kirk Langstrom is a zoologist cursed with deafness, and in an effort to cure his deafness, creates a serum with the help of bat DNA but it goes horribly wrong and is turned into a giant bat. In recent publications, he’s more of a sympathetic villain acting more on primal rage than malice. His interpretation in Arkham Knight was done really well. Although Arkham Knight is not a horror game, there’s a ton of jumpscares. While just gliding and grappling to different buildings, the player may be randomly met with the shrieking face of the Man-Bat, and you have to go to his lab and piece together what he has done and create an antidote.

Mr. Freeze

Dr. Victor Fries’s (pronounced “Frees”. Yeah, DC names are often very on the nose, just look at E. Nygma and Harleen Quinzel.) wife Nora Fries is afflicted with a terminal illness, and is cryogenically preserved by her husband in hopes that a cure might one day be discovered. While working, he’s trapped in an accident that made him unable to survive outside of sub-zero environments, forcing him to wear a cryogenic suit, and he turns to crime to find a cure.

Mr. Freeze was originally just another bank robber with a freeze ray, but Paul Dini changed his origin story to the current iteration in an Emmy Award winning episode of Batman: The Animated Series titled “Heart Of Ice”. Scott Snyder, as much as I loved his stories, controversially retconned this in the New 52 reboot and made Fries a man who got obsessed with a cryogenically preserved woman named Nora Fields.

The Court Of Owls

A newer addition to the Batman mythos, appearing first in Scott Snyder’s Court Of Owls and City Of Owls arcs that kicked off the New 52 Batman series. The Court Of Owls are Gotham’s own Illuminati. A secret society made of the wealthiest and most powerful citizens of Gotham, they have existed for centuries, controlling the city from behind the shadows, along with the help of immortal assassins named the Talons.

Batmen of The Dark Multiverse

Scott Snyder’s 2017 crossover event named Dark Nights: Metal introduced us to the Dark Multiverse, a multiverse where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, and is doomed to destruction. We’re introduced to the Batmen (and Batwoman) of The Dark Multiverse, who are all different versions of Batman with some drastic changes.

Joker 

A fan favorite, and the leader of the Batmen, is The Batman Who Laughs. This Batman gave into the urge of killing Joker, after he killed all his rogues, thousands of Gotham citizens and Jim Gordon, and is infected with a version of the Joker toxin that turns him insane, making him a Joker with the brain and physicality of Batman. He tricked the Batfamily and killed them all, and hid in his Batcave for a week, emerging to kill the Justice League, and he turned Damian into a mini-Joker and recruited the children affected by the Joker toxin as his “Rabid Robins”. This guy is freaking horrifying in all of the stories he appeared in.

Superman

The Superman of Earth -1 goes on a killing spree, even killing Lois Lane, leading Batman to decide to use lethal force. After his attempts with a Kryptonite spear doesn’t work out, he ingested a version of the Doomsday Virus (Doomsday is the monster that killed Superman in The Death Of Superman, the virus causes people to develop features like it.) aiding him in killing Superman, but after his victory, the virus spread and he could only watch helplessly as it destroyed his world.

The Flash

After all of the Batfam dies, Batman is compelled to take extreme measures, and tries to get The Flash to give him access to the Speed Force too, and when he refused, he used all the weapons employed by his Rogue’s Gallery to defeat him, chained him to the Batmobile (merged with the Cosmic Treadmill, it’s a treadmill that Flash uses to time travel accurately and stuff), and drove both of them into the Speed Force, absorbing The Flash and his powers, with Barry forced to watch as Batman murders each of his villains.

Aqua(wo)man

In a universe where everyone is gender-swapped, Bryce Wayne’s lover Sylvester Kyle (bleugh) is killed by metahumans, and starts killing every metahuman. After killing all of them on land, she meets Aquawoman, and peace negotiations turn into a conflict, and then she steals her trident, and kills her with her own weapon, and in retaliation, the Atlanteans drown Gotham City and a large part of the world, leading her to perform surgery on herself to give herself Aquawoman’s powers and designed an underwater army called the “Dead Waters''. Does that qualify as a navy?

Okay, there are a few more, like Cyborg Alfred Batmobile Batman, Ares Batman, Killed all of Green Lantern corps as a kid with a Green Lantern ring Batman, but I’m lazy, sorry. Maybe next time, cya, I gotta go finish Chainsaw Man.

[doomed-jester]

Watching Batman/Mr Freeze: Sub Zero and my first thought is "wow this movie looks ugly." BTAS sets a really high bar with its painted backgrounds and stylized cel animation. Sub Zero starts with a long sequence of shitty CGI fish and a crappy looking submarine model. It's already looking better now that we're out of the water but that was jarring.

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 6

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January.

  TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “It would move me to tears, if I had tears to shed.” Number 6 is…Heart of Ice.

Many seem to consider “Heart of Ice” to be the single best episode of “Batman: The Animated Series.” If it isn’t number one, it’s usually VERY high up, typically in the Top 5 at least. So for me to rank it a mere number six is probably blasphemy, in some people’s minds. As usual, I have nothing against “Heart of Ice” – far, FAR from it – but I just have personal biases that cause me to like five other episodes more. Of course, we’ll get to those stories when we get to them…for now, let’s focus on this one. This episode marks the first appearance of Mr. Freeze, and is famous for its reimagining of the character’s origin story. In the comics before this point, Freeze was a pretty standard, honestly rather dull villain: as one version of Green Lantern described him, he was “a two-bit gimmick villain from Gotham City.” Back then, he was an unnamed mad scientist, whose experiments in creating a freeze ray led to him needing to wear a special suit to keep himself in a sub-zero environment at all times. He was honestly depicted as sort of a blundering sort, whose condition was self-inflicted by his own foolhardiness. He was also known by a different name, “Mr. Zero.”

It was actually the Adam West series that first reinvigorated the character: not only was that show the series that gave him the title of “Mr. Freeze,” since the series’ creators felt that was a catchier name (and they were so very right), but they added a surprisingly tragic element to the character’s backstory: Freeze was still a mad criminal scientist, but his condition was no longer self-imposed. It was revealed that, when he first met Batman, the Caped Crusader (accidentally) doused Freeze with some of the dangerous chemicals he was experimenting with, and Freeze’s cold-hearted attitude was largely a result of his bitter desire for vengeance against the Dark Knight, whom he felt had robbed him of a normal life. Of course, the Silly Sixties could only go so deep with this pathos, due to its focus on campy comedy. It was the Animated Series that brought Freeze to critical mass, taking some of these same elements and expanding on them in a way that has now become legendary.

In “Heart of Ice,” we find out that Mr. Freeze was once a good man: a cryogenics expert by the name of Victor Fries, who was trying to save his wife, Nora, from a terminal illness. Unfortunately, Fries ran afoul of his employer: an entrepreneur named Ferris Boyle, who tried to shut down his experiments, not caring about Nora’s wellbeing at all. Victor tried to fight back, and was tricked by Boyle, who knocked him into a collection of unstable chemicals. This is what has led to him becoming Mr. Freeze: an ice-themed supervillain who can no longer exist outside of arctic-level temperatures, seeking vengeance against the one he blames for destroying his life and trying to murder his poor, beloved bride. When Batman is put on the villain’s trail, he ends up in Freeze’s crosshairs. Honestly, there is so much I could talk about on what makes this episode so magnificent. For starters, it’s one of the best animated episodes of the show, in my opinion. (The only one that might top it is “Feat of Clay.”) The music is spellbinding, with Freeze’s haunting, music-box-like theme repeated throughout the score, in stark contrast to Batman’s grandiose, orchestral power. It’s also notable for featuring Mark Hamill as a character OTHER than the Joker, as he plays the role of Ferris Boyle in the story. (Apparently, he actually recorded the voice of Boyle before ever landing the role of the Ace of Knaves, even though several Joker episodes all predate this story’s release. Weird.) And of course, the themes present in the story – the difference between vengeance and justice, and of what it means to be truly human – are powerful and nuanced in their presentation. One could write a whole book about what makes this episode so great, and still not have said enough. So…again, probably heresy leaving it out of the Top 5. For those of who are (unfairly) upset with me, I feel there’s no better apology I can give than Mr. Freeze’s own final lines: “I can only beg your forgiveness, and pray that you hear me somehow, someplace. Someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.”

Tomorrow we move into the Top 5 of the countdown! Hint: “My fault…I didn’t get the joke…”